26 And he said, `Thus is the reign of God: as if a man may cast the seed on the earth,
being begotten again, not out of seed corruptible, but incorruptible, through a word of God -- living and remaining -- to the age; because all flesh `is' as grass, and all glory of man as flower of grass; wither did the grass, and the flower of it fell away, and the saying of the Lord doth remain -- to the age; and this is the saying that was proclaimed good news to you.
`And he who is reaping doth receive a reward, and doth gather fruit to life age-during, that both he who is sowing and he who is reaping may rejoice together; for in this the saying is the true one, that one is the sower and another the reaper. I sent you to reap that on which ye have not laboured; others laboured, and ye into their labour have entered.
He who is sowing doth sow the word; and these are they by the way where the word is sown: and whenever they may hear, immediately cometh the Adversary, and he taketh away the word that hath been sown in their hearts. `And these are they, in like manner, who on the rocky ground are sown: who, whenever they may hear the word, immediately with joy do receive it, and have not root in themselves, but are temporary; afterward tribulation or persecution having come because of the word, immediately they are stumbled. `And these are they who toward the thorns are sown: these are they who are hearing the word, and the anxieties of this age, and the deceitfulness of the riches, and the desires concerning the other things, entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. `And these are they who on the good ground have been sown: who do hear the word, and receive, and do bear fruit, one thirty-fold, and one sixty, and one an hundred.'
I planted, Apollos watered, but God was giving growth; so that neither is he who is planting anything, nor he who is watering, but He who is giving growth -- God; and he who is planting and he who is watering are one, and each his own reward shall receive, according to his own labour, for of God we are fellow-workmen; God's tillage, God's building ye are.
`Hearken, lo, the sower went forth to sow; and it came to pass, in the sowing, some fell by the way, and the fowls of the heaven did come and devour it;
The whole day plougheth the ploughman to sow? He openeth and harroweth his ground! Hath he not, if he have made level its face, Then scattered fitches, and cummin sprinkle, And hath placed the principal wheat, And the appointed barley, And the rie `in' its own border? And instruct him for judgment doth his God, He doth direct him.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Mark 4
Commentary on Mark 4 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 4
In this chapter, we have,
Mar 4:1-20
The foregoing chapter began with Christ's entering into the synagogue (v. 1); this chapter begins with Christ's teaching again by the sea side. Thus he changed his method, that if possible all might be reached and wrought upon. To gratify the nice and more genteel sort of people that had seats, chief seats, in the synagogue, and did not care for hearing a sermon any where else, he did not preach always by the sea side, but, having liberty, went often into the synagogue, and taught there; yet, to gratify the poor, the mob, that could not get room in the synagogue, he did not always preach there, but began again to teach by the sea side, where they could come within hearing. Thus are we debtors both to the wise and to the unwise, Rom. 1:14.
Here seems to be a new convenience found out, which had not been used before, though he had before preached by the sea side (ch. 2:13), and that was-his standing in a ship, while his hearers stood upon the land; and that inland sea of Tiberias having no tide, there was no ebbing and flowing of the waters to disturb them. Methinks Christ's carrying his doctrine into a ship, and preaching it thence, was a presage of his sending the gospel to the isles of the Gentiles, and the shipping off of the kingdom of God (that rich cargo) from the Jewish nation, to be sent to a people that would bring forth more of the fruits of it. Now observe here,
In particular, we have here,
Having thus prepared them for it, he gives them the interpretation of the parable of the sower, as we had it before in Matthew. Let us only observe here,
Mar 4:21-34
The lessons which our Saviour designs to teach us here by parables and figurative expressions are these:-
After the parables thus specified the historian concludes with this general account of Christ's preaching-that with many such parables he spoke the word unto them (v. 33); probably designing to refer us to the larger account of the parables of this kind, which we had before, Mt. 13. He spoke in parables, as they were able to hear them; he fetched his comparisons from those things that were familiar to them, and level to their capacity, and delivered them in plain expressions, in condescension to their capacity; though he did not let them into the mystery of the parables, yet his manner of expression was easy, and such as they might hereafter recollect to their edification. But, for the present, without a parable spoke he not unto them, v. 34. The glory of the Lord was covered with a cloud, and God speaks to us in the language of the sons of men, that, though not at first, yet by degrees, we may understand his meaning; the disciples themselves understood those sayings of Christ afterward, which at first they did not rightly take the sense of. But these parables he expounded to them, when they were alone. We cannot but wish we had had that exposition, as we had of the parable of the sower; but it was not so needful; because, when the church should be enlarged, that would expound these parables to us, without any more ado.
Mar 4:35-41
This miracle which Christ wrought for the relief of his disciples, in stilling the storm, we had before (Mt. 8:23, etc.); but it is here more fully related. Observe,